Metro News & Reviews

Transportation headlines, Monday, July 16

Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’sHeadlines blog, which you can also access viaemail subscriptionor RSS feed.

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Nice video on eating along the Expo Line from Willy Blackmore, the L.A. editor for Tasting Table.

The dispute between Metro, the city of Beverly Hills and the BHUSD gets front-page treatment in the print edition of the NYT although the story is simply a ‘he-said, she-said’ account. The reporter doesn’t make any attempt to verify what sources say. If you are interested in reading about the subway or the many associated reports, please spend some time at metro.net/westside.

In related subway internet news, here’s a Huffington Post opinion piece in which a junior-to-be at Beverly Hills High argues for dropping the lawsuits against Metro. And in this piece in the Beverly Hills Patch, a Beverly Hills elected official requires only 2,368 words to argue that he’s civil.

Reporter Dakota Smith rides the Expo Line and finds more than a few Valley commuters who are using the Red Line subway from NoHo or Universal City to connect with the Expo Line to travel west or south to jobs and other attractions. Metro doesn’t have any hard numbers to show how many Expo riders have trips originating in the Valley, but there is anecdotal evidence that a lot of people are transferring from the Red Line to the Expo Line at 7th/Metro Center.

Newton credits Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for pushing his America Fast Forward idea to Congress but faults the mayor because it falls short of the goals he set it — i.e. a Measure R extension is still needed to accelerate all of the Measure R transit projects. I understand his point that the AFF ultimately approved doesn’t quite match some of the rhetoric (which came from all quarters). But the big picture remains this: Here we are in July 2012 with a chance to accelerate the Measure R projects, none of which had any funding whatsoever before Measure R was approved in 2008.

“Metro doesn’t have any hard numbers to show how many Expo riders have trips originating in the Valley”

What kind of transit agency is incapable of providing true hard data numbers of how people actually use their system? Oh that’s right, an agency that is defacto on the honor system and one that is on a flat rate system with tap-in process.

This is exactly why tap-in/tap-out is needed. It’s the only way to come up with true data figures to rationalize, more so efficiently plan the true value of mobility in LA.

There’s a reason why many cities all over the world has a tap-in/tap-out process. The best LA has is at best, an educated guess or “anecdotal evidence.” Hog wash.

Metro *should* be able to generate this type of data fairly quickly. It knows where people TAP in and the individual TAP account data. A series of TAP-in records on the same card over several days would quickly yield reliable commute data. TAP records would also be able to detect the absence of boardings on bus routes if they are indeed replaced by an Expo commute.